Walnut Creek: Newsmakers: Lesher Speaker Series – Claire McCaskill and Kelly Ayotte

Newsmakers: Lesher Speaker Series seeks to nurture a community of enthusiastic conversationalists, inspired to discuss important issues with family, friends, and neighbors.

McCaskill: U.S. Senator (2007-2018)
Ayotte: U.S. Senator (2011–2017); Attorney General of New Hampshire (2004–2009)

Claire McCaskill has spent her career as a prosecutor and elected official devoted to public service and earned a reputation in the U.S. Senate as a plain-spoken, independent, and effective champion for Missourians and all Americans.

Born and raised in the Show-Me state, Claire attended college and law school at the University of Missouri and began her career as an assistant prosecutor in Kansas City, specializing in prosecuting arsons and sex crimes.

Claire was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives and made history when she became the first woman elected Jackson County prosecutor, where she launched one of the nation’s first drug courts and established a first-of-its-kind domestic violence unit. Claire continued raising the level of accountability in Missouri as the state’s Auditor and later took on her own party establishment, becoming the first person to ever defeat a sitting Missouri Governor in a primary election. Learn more about Senator McCaskill.

Kelly Ayotte was elected to the Senate in 2010, where she was ranked as one of the most bipartisan senators working across party lines to find solutions to our nation’s biggest challenges. During her tenure in the Senate (2011–2017), Ayotte chaired the Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and the Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation Operations. She also served on the Senate Armed Services, Budget, Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Aging Committees. Ayotte is currently a senior advisor to Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions as well as a member of the boards of News Corp, Caterpillar, and the ONE Campaign, among others.

Ayotte is a leading voice on national security and was named by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the top 50 Republicans on national security affairs in the country. She is a strong advocate for our nation’s military readiness and our service men and women. She worked to pass legislation to improve the acquisition process to provide our troops with the resources they need to defend the nation. She fought for budget certainty, and also opposed defense sequestration and helped lead efforts to end it. As chair of the Readiness Subcommittee, she also led efforts to strengthen the infrastructure and workforce at the nation’s public shipyards.

In her role as a member of the Commerce Committee, Senator Ayotte worked to advance policies to encourage private-sector innovation and job creation. She was instrumental in working to pass the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation Act to establish public-private institutions that leverage investments in industrially relevant manufacturing technologies. She also helped enact provisions of the Manufacturing Universities Act aimed at boosting manufacturing skills training to meet the workforce needs of the high-tech manufacturing sector. Learn more about Senator Ayotte.

Running Time: approx. 90 minutes, with no intermission

More information here.